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Huffington Post, June 2014

Internships are a unique bridge
between our system of higher education and our workforce. That bridge is more important today than ever,
yet colleges and employers, concerned by recent lawsuits by unpaid interns over
Fair Labor practices, are making the unfortunate choice
to pull back rather than to improve and to expand internship opportunities.

In
the last ten years, the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women has supported
over 500 women who are working as summer interns by granting money for
stipends.We have seen these grants
benefit not only students but also the offices where they work and the schools
they attend. Independent research is beginning to confirm our reasons for
adopting this strategic priority.

Internships prepare students for the work
force, give them an advantage in seeking jobs after graduation, and may provide
benefits beyond the first job.The recentGallup
poll of U.S. business leadersfound that a majority believe college
graduates lack the skills and competencies their businesses require. Through
internships, students acquire workplace competencies that cannot be learned in
a classroom or most afterschool jobs. “These skills are essential to getting
ahead,” says Dr. Shyama
Venkateswar, Director of the Public Policy Program at Hunter College.
“Through internships, my students learn
how to navigate an office environment. They see what is appropriate professional
dress and communication. They practice thinking on their feet, managing
deadlines, and improving their analytic skills.”

These
benefits may last long past the first job. According to a Maysurvey
conducted by Gallup and Purdue University,
college graduates who held an internship or job in college where they were able
to apply what they were learning in the classroom, were twice as likely to be
engaged in their work. They also experienced a greater sense of well-being: a
measure that includes a sense of purpose, financial security, strong and
supportive relationships and good health.

Internships
help schools satisfy new expectations for employment outcomes and improved
rates of retention. Increasingly, schools are under scrutiny for the performance of their
graduates in the job market. The White House will soon rank
colleges using a formula that takes into account tuition prices, completion
rates, and the earnings of their graduates. While we don’t know if internships can
directly boost the earnings of college graduates, the National Association of
Colleges and Employers has found that nearly 50% of employers wish to see an
internship on student resumes.Early
research on the connection between internships and retention is also
encouraging. The Association of American Colleges and Universities
identifies internships as a “high
impact” educational practice that can increase student retention and
engagement.

This
month, thousands of students will begin summer internships. Many will work
without pay, and many of those will be women. While little research exists on
gender and internships, a study by Intern-Bridge
found that female interns were 75% more likely than male interns to work for
free. How many more students—talented qualified students who may stand the most
to gain from the experience—will lose out because they cannot afford to work
without pay?

Social entrepreneurs and philanthropists seek
out underleveraged situations to maximize the effect of their investment. Helping
students financially so that they can work at substantive, unpaid internships
is a small investment that can generate returns to a student, her school and
her employer that may last beyond a single summer. “I love my job,” a recent
graduate reported, “and I owe it to my summer as an intern. It pointed me to an
industry I would not have otherwise considered and to an employer who hired me
after graduation. This would not have happened without financial support.”